Jiří Šiftař: The Czech whose London photos helped make him huge on
Instagram

With over a quarter of a million followers, Jiří Šiftař must be one of
the most popular Czechs on Instagram. Going by the name Jeera on the
photograph sharing service, he is mainly known for stunning pictures of his
adopted home of London. Jiří Šiftař and I met at a restaurant in the
city near his workplace at Lloyd’s bank, where he designs web interfaces
for customers. I first asked him whether he had been into photography as a
child.

Jiří Šiftař, photo: archive of Jiří Šiftař
“Yes. In communist times there was a very limited amount of hobbies one
could pick and photography was one of them, because East Germany was
producing knock-offs of SLRs back then.

“My dad was quite interested in photography and he got me a Russian
two-lensed knock-off of Flexaret called Lubitel.

“I was about six years old when I first tried to take some pictures. And
then in my dad’s darkroom I developed the film and the pictures.

“It was really magical and exciting back then.”

Tell us about your early days in the UK. Why exactly did you come here?

“It was really to challenge myself. I was kind of fed up with the
atmosphere in the ‘90s in the Czech Republic. It was a little bit of a
wilderness.

“I wanted to try a different culture, a different approach, different
relationships with people, based on something more traditional, maybe.

“Some country with a longstanding history of democracy, if I can say it
like that [laughs].

“But basically it was to challenge myself, to see if I could do that.”

And England hasn’t let you down?

“I feel very happy that I made that step and I only feel sorry that I
didn’t do that earlier [laughs], to be honest.”

What exactly do you do? I looked at your profile online and as somebody who
doesn’t know much about design I couldn’t quite work it out.

“My recipe is to try to depict a place in the way that people will
imagine themselves in that place.”

“Yes, it doesn’t have that much tradition, but it’s picking up in the
Czech Republic as well.

“It’s called user experience design. It’s designing mostly digital
products but it could be even be a fridge or a washing machine.

“It’s all about how we interact with those devices.

“To put it simply, I’m the advocate for the customer, for the user,
when it comes to designing products.

“I take their view and I’m trying to design those products in a way
that is very easy to use, very simple to understand.

“You will make fewer errors when you’re using these things and you will
actually feel delightful and delighted. That’s what I’m doing.”

The main reason I wanted to talk to is that you’re absolutely huge on
Instagram, with over a quarter of a million followers. How have you
achieved that?

London, photo: Jiří Šiftař
“[Laughs] I’ve got that question many times and every time I have to
give quite a disappointing answer: just hard work.

“There was no magic, there was no trick. I’ve never been a suggested
user, for example. I’ve only got followers through my pictures.

“The first three years I was lucky, because in those days the Exposure
page, or the Explore page as it was called back then, was displaying around
400 of the most popular pictures at that given moment.

“And because there weren’t that many people on Instagram posting
amazing pictures I was lucky enough to get on that page with almost every
picture I posted.

“That was bringing me lots of organic followers, people who wanted to
follow me for my pictures.

“They didn’t know me, but they liked the pictures and it was growing
for years, slowly but steadily. So yeah, I reached a quarter of a
million.”

What has been your most popular single photo?

“It was probably some picture of Big Ben, I guess. Or something very
iconic in London.

“And I must admit I probably put some fake snowflakes over it [laughs].
It probably took people’s hearts so they were very happy with that
picture and they expressed it in likes.”

Is there a particular kind of photo or subject matter that just works on
Instagram, that people like?

“There are really many ways to get people’s attention. There are lots
of niche areas where you can find an audience, so there’s no general
rule.

“The first three or four years in London I was out every weekend with my
camera, hunting new places and pictures.”

“But if you’re moving on with photography and you don’t want to do
something specific, like portraits or bikes or whatever, if you’re really
into places, then my recipe is to try to depict a place in the way that
people will imagine themselves in that place.

“Because that’s what ignites the imagination in them and that’s
probably the feeling they’re looking for and they like. At least, for me
it works like that.”

What kind of camera do you use?

“I’ve been using a DSLR since quite early, I would say since four or
five years back.

“I don’t know if this is product placement, but you can always cut it
out [laughs] – currently I’m using a Nikon D810, quite an advanced
model.

“I’m also using a mirrorless Fuji. It’s now a little bit older, but
still pretty good.

“And sometimes I still take shots on my iPhone.”

How much of the final product comes from the actual photo you took out in
the field, and how much is post-production?

“You have to spot the right angle, you have to find the right composition
when you’re there.

“That’s something you can’t go without. You have to take a good
picture.

“But still, that picture might be quite bland in terms of colours and
dynamics.

“I always love the process of editing on the phone. Lately I’m editing
on a computer in Lightroom, because it’s a really powerful tool.

“But yes, if you want a picture to stand out and to be eye candy, you
definitely need to do something post.”

Looking through your photos you have so many wonderful pictures from
London, from parks and other spots – have you learned a lot about London
from going out and looking for such pretty places?

“Absolutely. I can recommend this as a way to get to know London.

“I know people who have lived in London for many years and they’ve
never seen the places I depict in my pictures. Because they have no reason
to discover them.

“The camera gave me the reason. The first three or four years in London I
was basically out every weekend with my camera, hunting new places and
pictures.”

Also I presume that London is so internationally popular and loved must
really help you?

“It was definitely a boost.

“I think that something has been kind of covered by new paint in Prague.
It’s missing that old vintage vibe.”

“Before I lived for four and a half years in Poole, in Dorset. It’s on
the coast, it has the sea and lots of beautiful places.

“But when I moved to London and I started posting London on Instagram, it
was definitely a huge boost. And there was huge interest from my
audience.”

Is what you do [on Instagram] in any way sponsored? Is there any commercial
aspect like that?

“That totally took us by surprise, I can tell. Because I was on Instagram
from day one. That was in 2010 and the first commercial offers started
coming in in 2012, actually a few months after I moved to London.

“It was surprising. We didn’t expect it. Social media marketing
didn’t exist that much before, or at least it wasn’t that visible or
accessible to everyone.

“Since then it’s gone to new heights and I’ve been approached by
many, many companies and asked to do lots of different campaigns.

“But I’ve always taken it as a great opportunity to visit new places
and do something I wouldn’t be able to do without those opportunities.”

How does it work in concrete terms? Will they pay for you to go somewhere?
Or do they want product placement?

Prague, photo: Jiří Šiftař
“The types of cooperation are very different, but yes. In the first years
it was, We will take you to some beautiful place, you will have a really
nice experience and if you post something from that we will be happy, and
please use this hashtag. As simple as that.

“In London, because it’s really full of opportunities and companies and
brands there were also some other types of deals where they wanted me to
attend some events, for example, and to promote some particular products
and things.

“I wasn’t always happy and I turned down a lot of these deals to simply
promote something that I didn’t believe in.

“If it was something I really loved and was happy to use, it was a
no-brainer for me.

“So yes, there are a lot of sorts of different deals.”

Have you published many photos from the Czech Republic and what kind of
reaction do they get?

“[Laughs] I feel a little bit bad about this, because during my time in
England and, let’s say, Instagram fame, I visited the Czech Republic and
Prague a few times but I never posted that many pictures from there.